In school baseball games, most of the attention was giving to the kids in charge of pitching, bowling, or those who manned the bases. The kids who dutifully took their place as fielders (excluding those who took on the role purely to avoid any physical exertion whatsoever), however, often got overlooked – and yet they played a crucial role in the game and if they ever failed to perform properly, people soon knew about it.
This type of thing is something that is sadly carried through into our working lives – some people get the glory while other, underrated people, provide crucial support roles without many thanks. We reckon it’s time to change this, so in the spirit of giving underrated professionals the thanks they deserve, here are a few professions we think should get star status.
Payroll staff
Being in charge of the payroll software is one of those jobs that many people don’t notice – until, for some reason, things go temporarily wrong. If someone gets charged the wrong amount of tax or, heaven forbid, doesn’t get paid at all, they’re pretty quick to notice. However, when everything is going well in the payroll and financial department, the employees in charge often get overlooked, despite the fact they do what is arguably one of the most important jobs in any organisation.
After all, they’re the ones who make sure you get paid – you’d have thought they’d be the most popular people in the building!
The recruitment team
The HR department is another one that quite often gets overlooked when things are going well. After all, if you don’t have anything to do with the HR team, it can be all too easy to think that new colleagues appear as if from nowhere and just get on with your job.
Fair enough, but if the recruitment team hired the wrong person for the job, this would soon have an impact on you, highlighting the crucial work they do on a day to day basis. They also get stuck with many of the unpleasant jobs that often go with working in a large company, such as making people redundant or dealing with disciplinary issues, so we think they deserve star status for good-naturedly doing a job that means they’re not always the most popular people around.
IT support
If you work in a job such as computer coding or website design, you are likely to be hugely appreciated for your IT skills. However, if you work in IT support, you might well feel it’s a bit unfair that your colleagues get all the glory while you’re stuck retrieving lost passwords, fixing minor computer glitches and trying to explain new procedures to staff. Without IT support, many organisations would grind to a halt, so let’s change our attitudes and make sure all our IT staff are appreciated.
Business support
Finally, we come to the world of business support. In particular, we’re talking about the small, practical jobs that are much more important than they first seem. Things like restocking the stationery cupboard, or fixing broken chairs and replacing light bulbs. The people in charge of things like this make it easier for the rest of us to get on with our own work, so it’s about time they got more recognition for the stellar work they do.